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I have plenty of Gay, Atheist and Muslim friends, we've never ran into or had to deal with any drama. Not saying your experiences aren't true, but for the most part it depends on the person.
I used to lived in NYC around West Indians who would have no problem calling gay men "Batty Boys," which is a derogatory term towards homosexuals. Even though a few individuals thought that way, I didn't generalize those people, or what they were about.
Are you actually gay, atheist or muslim? Because if not then you're 'experience' is not valid. You aren't going to be the target of gay, atheist, muslim, etc hate if you aren't a member of one of these groups. I mean, that should be obvious.
I'm not a muslim. Many of my neighbors and a few of my friends are. When I'm directly with them, it's very easy for me to say they don't have to deal with any 'drama' or bigotry because I generally don't see or hear it because it's not something that I personally experience so I'm not primed to be on the look out for it. I see the blatant graffiti on their places of worship or hear all of the anti-Muslim legislation, but in daily life, it's easy for me to ignore unless I know where and when to look for it. When I open my eyes, listen to their experiences and really look, I do see exactly what they are talking about. Sometimes it's just little microagressions - people staring, whispering, not making eye contact, not going near them, etc. If you think these things don't matter and don't add up, you're fooling yourself.
Are you actually gay, atheist or muslim? Because if not then you're 'experience' is not valid. You aren't going to be the target of gay, atheist, muslim, etc hate if you aren't a member of one of these groups. I mean, that should be obvious.
I'm not a muslim. Many of my neighbors and a few of my friends are. When I'm directly with them, it's very easy for me to say they don't have to deal with any 'drama' or bigotry because I generally don't see or hear it because it's not something that I personally experience so I'm not primed to be on the look out for it. I see the blatant graffiti on their places of worship or hear all of the anti-Muslim legislation, but in daily life, it's easy for me to ignore unless I know where and when to look for it. When I open my eyes, listen to their experiences and really look, I do see exactly what they are talking about. Sometimes it's just little microagressions - people staring, whispering, not making eye contact, not going near them, etc. If you think these things don't matter and don't add up, you're fooling yourself.
I'm non-religious, and I have three cousins that are Atheist, we all grew up in a Christian family. But none of our family members have disowned us, or treated us different; not to mention we have a friend of the family who's gay, we treat him like one of our own.
I'm not going to be inconsiderate towards your own personal experiences, those who have treated you that way, shame on them. I'm just saying from my circle, my environment, and the period in time of where I grew up, I've never seen these huge issues; not to say they don't happen or exist.
There are socially conservative white Democrats (think Union members) and very socially liberal blacks and Latinos of course. But you can't ignore the large voting blocks of AAs that are active in socially conservative churches.
I've mentioned this elsewhere on the forum - maybe even upthread - but the whole "blacks and Latinos are socially conservative" thing is a myth, they just aren't.
Even setting aside all economic issues, let's look at the remainder. Both blacks and Latinos tend to be opposed to capital punishment, in favor of gun control, consider global warming to be an issue, and tend to have a more "left wing" view on foreign policy. They tend to be right of the white American average on exactly one issue each. Black Americans tend to be more opposed to SSM (but tend to be pro choice). Latinos tend to be a bit more pro life than white Americans (but aren't any less likely to oppose SSM these days).
It seems ridiculous to me to argue that all you need to do is oppose SSM or be nominally pro life to be "socially conservative" and hence conservative in general. If that was the case, virtually no one would have been liberal 50 years ago.
I'm an atheist, but I occasionally hang out with the Unitarian Universalists because they are fun. I will say this, though, even though I don't talk much about not buying the bull**** claims of the fundamentalists here, if anybody senses you are not religious here, yes, you get discriminated against. Stay away from Shreveport. I'm planning to leave Shreveport soon, more than likely heading west.
The switch happened with Teddy Roosevelt leaving the Republican Party, and Taft's Republicans taking over. Woodrow Wilson was the first "progressive" democrat. FDR pushed it further. Democrats shied away from racial issues to preserve their coalition until the 1960's, when they went all-in on civil rights. After that the southern democrats broke off and formed a 3rd party. Nixon would later try to pull that group in, with the "southern strategy" which helped in his landslide in 1972, and from there we got the parties we have today, more or less.
There was still a lot of overlap between the parties up until the 90's. I think 2000 ushered in a new era where the democrats are firmly liberal, and the republicans are firmly conservative, people vote much more ideologically, and the electorate is more polarized, and the electoral college shifts way way less than it used to, with most states being permanent red or blue states now.
Black democrats in the south are LIBERAL, but not necessarily LEFTIST. That's the main difference. If you're wondering what the difference between those two things is, Hillary Clinton = Liberal, Bernie Sanders = Leftist. That should help.
There are also moderate democrats, and republicans, but increasingly those have less influence in either party. Black voters are generally not moderate.
The switch happened with Teddy Roosevelt leaving the Republican Party, and Taft's Republicans taking over. Woodrow Wilson was the first "progressive" democrat. FDR pushed it further. Democrats shied away from racial issues to preserve their coalition until the 1960's, when they went all-in on civil rights. After that the southern democrats broke off and formed a 3rd party. Nixon would later try to pull that group in, with the "southern strategy" which helped in his landslide in 1972, and from there we got the parties we have today, more or less.
There was still a lot of overlap between the parties up until the 90's. I think 2000 ushered in a new era where the democrats are firmly liberal, and the republicans are firmly conservative, people vote much more ideologically, and the electorate is more polarized, and the electoral college shifts way way less than it used to, with most states being permanent red or blue states now.
Black democrats in the south are LIBERAL, but not necessarily LEFTIST. That's the main difference. If you're wondering what the difference between those two things is, Hillary Clinton = Liberal, Bernie Sanders = Leftist. That should help.
There are also moderate democrats, and republicans, but increasingly those have less influence in either party. Black voters are generally not moderate.
I've never heard of a difference between liberal and leftist. If anything, I would not call Hillary Clinton a liberal, I would call her moderate.
I've never heard of a difference between liberal and leftist. If anything, I would not call Hillary Clinton a liberal, I would call her moderate.
This election is a convenient opportunity for Americans to start using the term 'liberal' the way the rest of the world does.
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